Absolutely not. War on the Korean peninsula would be a disaster for all involved. Further, the North has repeatedly demonstrated that despite its empty rhetoric and occasional outbursts of violence, it will not begin a war. They only rattle their sabers and conduct nuclear tests when they want to extort some kind of concessions out of the US and the South.
Just because they detonated a nuclear device does not mean they have the ability to successfully deploy it as an offensive munition.
More important of all, there is little to no will among the nation or the international community to take offensive action against rogue nuclear states like Iran, North Korea, or Pakistan. The tragic fact of the matter is that we must wait until one of these nations detonates a nuclear weapon offensively (either on their own or through proxies) before people will take the danger seriously and look to a military solution.
It doesn’t just have to be about all-out war. What if they start using nuclear devices (or the technology, parts, etc.) as a commodity to be sold to other countries or terrorist factions, in exchange for the food they’re not getting because of sanctions?
They regard NK as a significant problem, if anything destabilizes the government. China fears 20 million starving refugees flooding over the border if the government falls. It is in China’s interest to maintain the status quo.
NK is China’s problem. If China wants to be seen as a pillar of Asian security, they have to step up and deal with NK. If they don’t no-one will, certainly not this admin.
Of course they are. Reunification is the giant carrot that drives people on both sides of the DMZ. Koreans want reunification in an idealistic abstract sense. Actually implementing it would be a nightmare, but there are many people who desperately want to be reunited with their families, so they still cling to it.
The national goal of reunification with the South is the great fiction that the North uses to perpetuate its regime. They claim that they want to peacefully reunify with the South and rescue their long-lost cousins. All the hardship and suffering of the North Korean people serves the ultimate goal of an eventual reunification and the opposition to the US boogeyman that keeps them apart. This is a farce. Without a noble cause to work towards and an external enemy to oppose, they would have no way to justify their misappropriation of resources and human rights atrocities. Maintaining the fiction is what has kept them in power for so long.
Reunification is the worst thing that could possibly happen to the Kim Dynasty.
Really, what changed between today and a week ago? They still have the bomb, and if we didn’t invade them then, we shouldn’t do it now. Sure, testing nukes brings one a bit closer to having a working and operational arsenal, but its doubtful North Korea is suicidal enough to use one. North Korea doesn’t want a nuke for offense, its for defense only
They tested a nuclear weapon for the first time in three or four years and appear to have a smaller and more powerful bomb, which is what you need if to do if you want to put the bomb on a missile as discussed earlier. So there’s that.
Right. That would be bad.
“Doubtful?” How comforting. A nuke is a nuke, and we can only speculate about how it would be used. “Doubtful” isn’t not much comfort to anybody. While I share your doubts, continued testing props up the regime and a bigger arsenal is more dangerous for everybody because they could try to use it, could go back to selling the technology, and because who knows what will happen to the weapons when this dynasty collapses.
MAD is why they won’t. Mutual Assured Destruction. This underpinned the Soviet/NATO opposition. If one fired the other would reply with everything available. Total annihilation.
NK has at best a few weapons, certainly nothing able to destroy the western world. Just France or the UK has enough capability to wipe NK from the planet for a thousand years, let alone the US retaliation. They have nothing to gain and everything to lose.
They gob off a bit but are not so stupid so as to really press the button, like India or Pakistan, they cannot prevent a retaliatory strike which would be total.
You worry too much and should go and have a beer or two.
A few guys in a jet killed about 3,000 people in 2001. Look at the fall out of that!
Do you really think the result of a nuke would be less than a total wipe out of any even imagined threat globally?
You can sit at home being scared but if it is taken to the next level the response will be up there too, relax, have a beer. The bogey man is not at the door.
I did, and it still makes no sense. None of these countries you fear can possibly win. Sure there would be some losses but you seem to think these problems have never faced the world before. Been there, seen it, done it.
You read a history book or two then relax and have a beer, really you worry too much.
I don’t know how you could have read the thread and missed all the posts where I said I didn’t think North Korea was going to attack anybody because they wouldn’t survive, which is the same reason you just gave. Another poster asked about the possibility of North Korea selling their weapons technology, and I pointed out that that’s already happened. I’m not sure what that has to do with September 11th.
Putting all that aside, unless you’re posting in the BBQ Pit, you probably shouldn’t tell posters they sound scared and need to relax.
Sorry Marley, I must have missed that. Just not worrying about the scare mongers. No insult intended. September 11 2001 was just pointing out a relatively small loss compared to a nuke elicited a huge response, something bigger would be catastrophic for the belligerent.
Apologies if I missunderstood, it was not my intention.